Best Laid Plans Sometimes Leave Much To Be Desired
by donutsweeper
Summary: Steve plans, Danny kvetches, and Kono and Chin try to stay out of the line of fire figuratively in their case, but you never know


**The Planning Session**

"This is never going to work, brah," Chin said as he eyed the table littered with paper after paper detailing every single aspect of Steve's plan by every conceivable angle.

"Sure it will," Steve protested. "We just have to get all the details right."

"I don't know, boss, I think I'm with Chin on this one," Kono said, returning to Steve's living room from the kitchen and passing a beer to each of the others. "It isn't going to work. This is _Danny_ we're talking here."

"I have planned successful raids on numerous.. well, let's just say military targets, around the world and planned them with _great_ success. I think I can plan a party."

"But it's not _just_ a party," Kono pointed out.

"No, it's a _surprise_ party," Chin clarified, adding, "A surprise party for _Danny_."

"Quit being so negative! This'll work. We just need to hammer out all the details! So, from the top. Again. Okay, first thing Monday morning we'll synchronize our watches and then..." Steve paused as he shuffled the papers around.

"Somehow I think planning the invasion of Normandy was a piece of cake compared to this," Kono whispered to Chin.

"I heard that! Aha!" Steve held out one of the papers and began to rattle off the day's schedule. "Okay so after our watches are in sync then..."

The two cousins sighed and rolled their eyes. When faced with the force of nature that was Steve in planning mode there was nothing to do but sit, ride it out and hope that there would be plenty of beer at the other end.

**A Wrench In The Plans**

Steve had always been good at planning things. First as a kid when doing reports in front of the class, then as a quarterback directing the rest of his squad and when he'd been a SEAL? His team had always been one of the best prepared ones out in the field. He always had all the details organized and lined up, as well as backup plans and plans within plans and not to mention measures and countermeasures. Things always went off without a hitch.

Until now.

Leave it to Danny to throw a wrench into the works.

Literally.

The birthday party was a surprise, that part had worked out as planned. However, Steve hadn't foreseen Danny having the reaction he did to being surprised... said reaction being for Danny to drop the bags he'd been carrying in order to pull his weapon. And, since Steve had gotten Danny to come to his house under the impression they'd be doing some work on his sink, the bag contained, among other things, a very large and rather heavy pipe wrench. A wrench that landed squarely on Danny's foot.

Steve thought he had planned for every contingency. But, oddly enough, a trip to the emergency room had not factored in to a single _one_ of his plans. Not one. Not even the one that involved calling in an Army evac team and the National Guard. Kono and Chin were never going to let him hear the end of this. And Danny?

Danny was going to _kill_ him.

**Happiness Is When A Plan Comes Together**

Danny began to complain the minute Steve pulled out of the hospital parking lot. "No stairs. No stairs for an entire week. I can't believe the doctor said I can't do stairs for a whole week. What the hell does that mean, anyway? 'Doing stairs.' No one says that. Do stairs. Seriously. But what the hell am I going to do? There are stairs up to my place. I can't _get_ to my apartment without going up a flight of stairs, which I can't do because the idiotic doctor thinks the stress of the stairs on my knee and on my foot- oh and, by the way, did I thank you for this yet? Happy Birthday, Danny, here's your present, it's a broken foot. Surprise!"

"Danno-"

"You could have just asked me over for a beer or something. You didn't need to text me pretending to have plumbing problems and panicking because Mister Manly Marine can't deal with a leaky pipe. I should have known it was all a lie, since when would you ask my help over something like that? Your place gets shot to hell and back and did you ask for my help? No. But a little leak and you practically fall apart? Not likely. But, no, stupid me, what do I do? I say-"

"Danny..."

"No, I say, 'Sure, Steve. I'd be happy to help.' Why? Because apparently, I am a dumbass."

"Danny, you're not-"

"Oh, don't worry, because, you, my friend, are a dumbass too. I bet you had a couple of hundred contingency plans in place to get me there in case I said no, didn't you?"

"I did not have a couple of hundred contingency plans." Steve paused for a minute before adding, "There were only sixteen of them for that."

"Sixteen. Seriously? Sixteen? Why did you even tell me that? When I asked that, it was rhetorical. I wasn't really looking for an honest answer. You know all you had to do was say, 'Hey Danny, want to come over for a beer?' and I'd've been there. But no, you had to go with your sixteen thousand lame plans and now I have a busted foot and can't go home and I didn't even get cake."

"It's still your birthday, technically. So there's still time for cake."

"If everyone hasn't eaten it already."

"Like Kono would've let that happen. Come on, let's get you to my place, you can collapse on the couch and have your cake. Okay?"

"Okay. But, just so you know, I'm still pissed at you."

"I can live with that."


End file.
